How to play SMOOCH

You do not need to read this to start. SMOOCH walks you through the night as you play. This is the full reference if you like knowing the rules first, or if you want to settle an argument mid-game.

What you need

Two people, one browser each or one shared screen, and 45 to 90 minutes. Nothing to download and nothing to print.

1. Pick your mood

Choose Romantic, Flirty or After Hours together. Your mood sets the tone for the night, and every challenge you draw stays inside it.

2. Enter the story

Pick a storyline and you both get a premise, and you assume aliases for the date. The story runs in chapters, and every chapter has its own scene and its own set of challenges. The night ends when the last chapter is dealt, so there is no clock to watch.

The chapter counter is the real clock. It fills as you play, and with five chapters to go it starts counting down instead of up. The last one arrives as The final chapter.

3. The rules of the board

  1. Take turns to roll, move, resolve the space, then end the turn. You each start with $1,000, and passing Start pays you $75.
  2. On an unowned spot, buy it at the printed price or pass. Buying it deals your partner a Base card.
  3. On your partner’s spot, Base costs full cover and adds no heat; Tease costs half and adds 1; Go Bold costs a quarter and adds 2; a Free Pass costs nothing and deals no card.
  4. Landing on the Free Pass corner gives you one. Passes stack, and a Free Pass means no cover, no card.
  5. Landing on your own spot does nothing.
  6. Back out of a story card for its cover charge. Go Bold costs double cover.
  7. If you are broke and hold no Free Pass, Go Bold is free and you cannot back out of it.
  8. A full set doubles every cover.
  9. Trade cash and spots any time you both agree.
  10. Wildcards move you, move money between you, skip a turn, or repeat one.
  11. Every story card turns a page. The night ends on the last one.
  12. Heat stays hidden until the end.
  13. Two crowns decide the finish: the Greedy crown for net worth and the Passionate crown for heat. Passionate goes to whoever has the most heat, as long as the highest heat finishes above where it began. Tie and you share it, and one player can take both. If someone concedes, their partner takes Greedy. Passionate still follows the heat score.

4. Free Passes and trading

Landing on the Free Pass corner gives you one. Passes stack, and spending one means no cover, no card.

You can trade cash and spots any time you both agree. Talk it through and make the deal together.

5. Backing out

A story card can be backed out of for the cover charge, or double the cover for Go Bold. A broke player’s free Go Bold is the one card without a back-out, and the 18+ gate stays.

Playing long distance

SMOOCH works in the same room or over a private video call from wherever you each are. Stories that support it ship a separate long-distance version, written so every challenge works across a screen. Start a game, send your partner the link, and you play the same board together.

You choose the mood together before the night begins. The After Hours mood asks you both to opt in before it opens. See our After Hours policy for more.

Play SMOOCH